Tried it Tuesday/Wednesday-Zoo Design

While I was on my unintentional blogging break, I was not allowed to work the second to last week of school, and I was put on "light duty" at school for the last week. That means that I was allowed to go in for a few hours each day, but that was it. While my body and baby needed me to be on light duty...that meant that I needed to to make sup plans for at least half a day (some days all day) for the last two weeks of school.

It isn't the easiest thing to come up with plans that will keep the kids engaged and focused. While I was picking out things for my kiddos to do I stumbled across a wonderful project that Matt from Digital: Divide and Conquer had shared with me earlier in the year, Zoo Design: Area and Perimeter.

I had already taught my students how to find area and perimeter of polygons earlier this year, so I was able to copy the pages in the packet, as well as the directions for the sub, and leave it in a folder for them to do one morning. I came in after the students had been working on this for a little while. The students were still busy working, and enjoying the activity.
Since it was the last week of school, I wasn't planning on grading this activity so I let the students work with a partner if they wanted to. It was great to see them enjoying and reviewing their skills so close to the end of the school year. I wish I had taken pictures of the project, but totally forgot! If you are looking for a fun, engaging, and differentiated project for your kiddos to do to practice area and perimeter this is just what you need!

What activities/projects do you use to end the year? Looking for some more great things that people have tried? Check out Holly's blog for Tried it Tuesday!

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Spark Student Motivation-Ordering Fractions and a Freebie

Happy Saturday! Even though I barely worked this week with all the snow days and two-hour-delays I am so thankful for the weekend! I'm also super excited to link up with the fabulous Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching!

A few weeks ago my students and I began our intensive study on Fractions. For some reason fractions really freak my kiddos our every year. As soon as I say the word they panic...does anyone else have this happen in their classrooms? Due to this, I always start out slow, review the basics, and add in fun activities as often as I can. This really helps to overcome that fear.

To help my students learn to order fractions I give them this Fraction Bar Chart that you can grab for free from TPT. I then give my students a baggie filled with small food items. I've used Lucky Charms, M&Ms, Skittles, etc. This year we used Goldfish because that is what I happened to have on hand. The students and I work together to compare fractions using the Goldfish to mark our spots on the fraction chart.

As the students get more confident, I give them multiple fractions to order. They use their fraction bar charts to identify the fractions and then write their answers down on mini white boards so I can quickly walk around and check them.

Even though this lesson is a little less-mini than most of my mini-lessons my students are engaged the entire time. Of course at the end of the lesson they are able to eat their treat...and that definitely motivates them!

How do you introduce students to ordering fractions?

Tried it Tuesday-Math Workshop

Happy Tuesday everyone! I am home sitting in my yoga pants enjoying a snow day here in PA! This snow day has been such a blessing because I just finished my grad paper for the class I have been taking! This class has been my least favorite so far, so I am VERY thankful to have it behind me!

I'm excited to link up with Holly for Tried it Tuesday! It has been way too long since I have had the chance to link up and share what I have tried...just another bonus to an extra day off!

Those of you that have read my blog for a while know that I have started implementing a Math Workshop in my classroom this year. I have labored over the idea of a math workshop for years, but didn't know how I could fit all I needed to cover into our assigned 50 min schedule. This year I finally bit the bullet and went for it. Because of our tight schedule I am not able to do some of the activities other math workshops are able to do like Calendar math or a problem of the day, as much as I wanted to give those aspects a try I just couldn't make them fit...so instead I've come up with my own modified version of Math Workshop and I am extremely pleased with the results.

My students and I start each day with a mini-lesson. This is where I introduce the skill, we make our foldables for the unit/day, and we practice one or two problems together. This normally takes about 10-15 min. I have found when I am introducing a brand new topic (like geometry) this lesson is normally about 20 min long because of the time it takes to make the foldables...I just shorten my other times to adjust accordingly.

After our introduction my students rotate between teacher time, seat work, and hands on time. I always start with my low kids first. We continue to work on the lesson/skill for the day together. We work together on whiteboard on the floor in the front of the room. The other students know they can only bother me if they are dying or bleeding (this took a lot of training in the first few weeks of school, and a lot of reminding last week after having so many days off for Thanksgiving break.)

The students at the at your seat center will normally work on task cards at a side table. My favorite task cards to use have QR codes on them. This allows the students to check themselves. I still collect their work to check that it is complete, but it saves me a lot of time grading.

The hands on center can be anything! Sometimes I have the students create shapes, work on magic squares, Math Tic-Tac-Toe boards, or play math games that go with our skills.

I am so glad I tried a Math Workshop this year. My students are improving, and it is allowing me to support my low kids, while I stretch my high kiddos! It's a win-win for me and my students.

What have you tried recently?

Fraction Mentor Text-The Hershey's Fractions Book

Happy Sunday everyone! I am triple dipping today in linky parties today in a hope to catch up from this busy week! First I'm linking up with Collaboration Cuties to share a Math mentor text with you and with Ideas by Jivey to share how I introduce fractions in my classroom.

 

The Hershey's Milk Chocolate Fractions Book by Jerry Pallotta. This is a book that I know many have shared before, but I am looking forward to starting this unit with my kiddos soon.

I love using this book when I introduce fractions to my kiddos. I purchase a large pack of Hershey bars so that each student can have their own bar to work with. I put the book on our Elmo and we go through making each of the fractions with our candy bars.

Once we finish using the candy bars we are able to eat them. Anytime I use food in my classroom my kiddos are highly motivated. We have math in the morning, and I don't allow my students to eat candy before lunch-so the fact that they can eat part of the chocolate bar during math is a really big deal for them.

 

This year I am excited to use Jessica's Chocolate Bar Fraction Activity Packet with my kiddos as well.

 

I also give my students a paper set of fraction bars to keep in their notebook. I updated my set of fraction bars so they only include the denominators (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12) required by the Common Core. You can grab them here for free.

What do you do to introduce fractions to your students? Do you ever use food to motivate them?

Workshop Wednesday-Freebie Math Games

Happy Wednesday! Today was a busy day in 4th grade...it was my student teacher's last day so of course we had to have a little celebration to thank her for all she did for us and my school computer crashed! I'm so thankful that I save everything on the server and not on my desktop!

Since it is Wednesday I am linking up with Ideas by Jivey to share some math games. My kiddos love playing math games. I've blogged about a few of them before, you can read about them here. But I want to share three freebie games that you can get from TPT with you today that my kids are loving right now.

 

The first game is Bang! A Multiplication Game. This game is super easy to set up. I printed everything on cardstock, cut the "sticks" apart and put them in a little pail that I have in my classroom. The directions and answers are included so I set it up as a center in my classroom. I love it because my kids are practicing those tricky multiplication facts in a fun way.

The second game is Bang! Division Fact Game. I created this game last year out of necessity. My kids loved the Bang! Multiplication game and I really needed them to learn their division facts. The game is played the same way as the game above and the kids love it.

The third game that my kids are really enjoying right now is Factor Race Math Game. This game requires a little more "teaching" to have your kids get the hang of it, but it is a fun, fast-moving game that has your students practice finding factors of a number. There is an "easy" set of numbers and a "challenging" set. I mixed them up and have the kids working with both sets since most of my kiddos are on the same level this year.

What are your favorite math games to play with your kiddos during workshop time?

Factors, Multiples, Prime Numbers-Oh My!

Happy Saturday! Anyone else experiencing abnormal heat this week/weekend? Where did my fall weather go? I am just thankful my husband was smart and decided not to take the air conditioner out of our bedroom window yet. Alright-no more weather complaints...I'm excited to link up with my friend Joanne at Head over Heels for Teaching for her linky, expecially since I missed it last week!

I currently have a student teacher, she is doing a wonderful job, but because she is with us in the room I keep forgetting to take pictures of our projects. This coming week she is teaching everything (It is her last full week with me,) so I will try to remember to take pictures to share with you.

This past week my students learned about factors, multiples, prime and composite numbers. It was a lot to accomplish, but we seem to have it. I used a number of different things to keep the kiddos engaged.

Skittles-To introduce my students to factors I gave each student a bag of 30 skittles. I asked the students to make an array using 12 of the skittles in their bag. I then had them share the way they built their array. That let us talk about factors, and helped us to identify all of the factors. The students were very happy to eat the skittles at the end of math.

Children's Literature-When I was introducing Prime/composite numbers we read the story You Can Count on Monsters. I've blogged about this book before. You can read more about it here. This book really helps to give a visual. The students love all the monster books I've been sharing with them lately.

QR Code Task Cards-My students love anything that has to do with the ipad. I purchased a great set of QR Code Task cards from Kristin Kennedy. If you haven't used her stuff-I really encourage you to use it. She is fantastic. Here is one of her freebie's that I used this week to help my kiddos sort and identify prime and composite numbers.

What do you do to keep your kiddos engaged, and help them learn tricky math concepts?

Workshop Wednesday-Setting up a Math Workshop

Happy Wednesday! I'm excited to link up with Ideas by Jivey to share how I have started running a Math Workshop in my classroom this year.

At the end of last year I knew I wanted to change the way I taught math. Most of my math lessons started with whole group and then individual work. I used a lot of task cards and tic-tac-toe boards last year to help me differentiate, but I knew I wanted to give my kids more one-on-one. So this year I started Math Workshop. I've been playing around with it to find what works for my kids and for me. We have 50 min. for math, so I start class with a 10-15 min. mini-lesson. I introduce the topic, create our foldable, or glue in the basics for our day during this time. Then the students rotate every 12 min. to three stations. They normally don't finish what I have at each station-but they have two days at each station.

We started with knowing what Math Workshop looks likes and sounds like. I have the students generate this with me. When they help me create the list I find it is easier for them to "stick with it."

The kids are really enjoying the rotating. I find that with 12 min. at each station the students need to be smart with their time, and that helps them stay focused.

How do you set up your Math Workshop in your room?

Spark Student Motivation-Magic Squares

Happy Saturday! It is a beautiful day here in PA. I am so excited to have my windows open and not by seating to death! I hope many of you are able to have the gorgeous weather I am enjoying today!

I'm linking up with the wonderful Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching to share an activity that I use to motivate my kiddos during math.

I am always looking for a fun way to stretch my kiddos thinking. Last year I stumbled across Magic Squares on TPT. HoJo, one of my favorite Magic Squares sellers has a lot of great products for all elementary ages. She has a blog post about how to use them here.

This week during our math stations I had my kiddos work on her Place Value set. Because I like to hold my kiddos accountable for their work in their stations so I copy them on white paper, cut them apart, and paperclip all the squares together. When the students solve the puzzle I have them tape the squares down on a blank piece of paper.

The students love doing them. A few of my high kids asked for new squares when they finished the set they were on because they enjoyed doing them so much. I loved it because they were very engaged and they solved 24 math problems in a fun and exciting way.

Have any of you used Magic Squares with your kiddos before? Be sure to head over to Joanne's blog to find more ways to motivate your students!

Wait! It's Saturday? Time to Catch Up!

Where has this week gone? It totally flew by! I am so behind on reading blogs...and missed linking up with a few people this week so today I am going to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday and Joanne at Head over Heels for Teaching for Spark Student Motivation.

This week was my second week with my kiddos and I still think they are adorable. They are such a sweet group of kids and I have got to admit that makes my life easier, and teaching so much more enjoyable. They are still learning the procedures and expectations of our classroom, but they are picking it up very quickly.

We started Math Workshop this week. It is my first time using Math Workshop in my classroom, but it is going well. The kids enjoy moving around to different centers, and I am enjoying working with a small group of kiddos. I only have 50 min for math, so I am still trying to get the timing down. I am thinking about adding a fourth rotation and having the kids do two rotations a day instead of three. That will give us more time at each station. My low/middle kids could really use the extra time. The only thing I don't like about that is the fact that I wouldn't see all my kids every day. Any suggestions for me?

We also started Writing Workshop this week. I had the students write down on the first page of their notebook things that make things that make them who they are. They jotted down lots of ideas. Then, because of this pin on Pinterest. I had the kids trace and decorate their hands with things about themselves.

It was a nice "easy" way to get them to generate ideas without needing to write paragraphs. Anyone else's kids still in summer mode when it comes to writing?

We also taught each other about the five areas of social studies to kick off our socials studies unit for the year. If you missed my post on Thursday, you can read more about this activity here.
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My giveaway ended yesterday. Congratulations to Sara for winning my Back to School Giveaway. Be sure to check your e-mail!

 

On a fun, personal note, Glen and I got a new car. His car was slowly dying so we went out last night (after spending the week car shopping online) and purchased a Hyundai Elantra-GT. Glen travels 45 min. to and from work so we wanted to get him a car that was affordable and comfortable. He loves it, and I'm happy I don't have to worry about his '97 Saturn breaking down!

What have you been up to this week? How do you motivate your students?